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Full-Blown Riots Erupt as Occupy Oakland Gets Out of Control Overnight

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A picture from earlier this month at Occupy Oakland. (Photo: AP)

We’ve already brought you some pictures and video from the Occupy Oakland eviction last night, but this morning it seems things were much worse than previously expected. How much worse? Apparently the crowed erupted in riots and police used rubber bullets on the crowd.

Intrepid blogger Zombie put together a collage of videos and pictures that seem to capture the full chaos of what happened. Here’s how he describes it in his piece, “Rioting in Downtown Oakland as Occupiers Clash with Police:”

What we know so far: After the Occupy Oakland encampment was torn down early Tuesday morning by police, the ousted protesters reconvened outside the Oakland Library on Tuesday afternoon and voted to attempt a re-occupation of the same plaza from which they had just been evicted. Summoned by waves of emergency tweets and emails, fresh recruits joined the evicted Occupiers and early this evening once again marched on downtown Oakland, intending to reclaim Frank Ogawa Plaza.

But the Oakland Police were of course monitoring all this, and along with many other local police departments they were waiting for the protesters’ invasion. After an hours-long standoff at 14th and Broadway, interrupted by several confrontations and arrests, everything started to turn violent some time after 9:30pm.

This is what resulted. (CONTENT WARNING for language on the videos.)

The cops initially gave the protesters a four-minute warning to disperse (which they ignored):

As the police released the tear gas, it sounded like a war zone:

This video claims police were using rubber bullets. If you listen close, it does sound like you can hear projectiles whizzing by. It has not been confirmed that police did, in fact, use rubber bullets. However several protesters have claimed as much. In fact, one person released a Twitter picture showing a 12 gauge shotgun shell and what appears to be a rubber bullet:

Still, it’s unknown if that is the truth or an attempt to portray the police as escalating the situation:

Protesters chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!”

And finally, videos show the protesters surrounding the police earlier in the day and throwing paint cans at them: